Graffiti

A few days ago I was in a pub in the town I grew up in. I went to the toilet and whilst there I noticed there was graffiti on the walls. The usual stuff, someone had written MUFC and someone else had scratched out the M and written an L next to it. Someone else had written ‘Soul crew’ a few times - they are the hooligan element of Cardiff city and someone else had written Munich Cuntz (nice spelling), referring to Manchester United (The landlord is a fan, maybe that’s why). It made me wonder what kinds of people live here?

Now as I mentioned someone had taken the time to scratch the M from MUFC and replaced it with an L but they had not defaced, if that is the right word for graffiting graffiti , what was written right next to it. Someone had written ‘Gay love is happy love’, which may or may not be true but I wonder what kind of people would deface a football team's initials but not an open proclamation of homosexuality. The town is not known for being particularly tolerable when it comes to anything different let alone being gay so again I wonder what kind of people live here. I am thankful that whoever wrote it seems to have a sense of humour at least. Well, the answer to the question ‘What kinds of people live here?’ could be in the same toilet as this graffiti. The mirror above the sink had an anti rape sticker on it. I can’t even begin to tell you what is wrong with our society if we need to have stickers to tell us rape is wrong but to make matters worse someone had tried to remove it. As unbelievable as it sounds, a patron, whether it was a one time drinker or, more likely a regular had tried and failed to remove a sticker telling us that rape is wrong. He couldn’t even be bothered to finish the bloody job never mind the fact that this act would indicate that he was offended by such a sticker. I really despair when I think of the kind of people who live in close proximity to some of my closest friends and family members.

But graffiti isn’t only the territory of the bigoted or the rapist it can be used as a medium for funny people too. In a bar called ‘Deep in’ where I used to live in Korea the toilets were covered in graffiti but this time the graffiti was sanctioned and the walls of the whole place were covered in graffiti. The one example that really sticks in my mind is the quotation from a Simpson’s episode that someone had written in the male toilets. It comes from one of the greatest comedy creations of all time, Ralph Wiggum and it is:

"Me fail English, that’s un-possible"

Now if you’re going to graffiti somewhere make it worthwhile and entertain, educate or amuse.

Rant over.